Objective: To investigate the characteristics of post-transplantation diabetes mellitus and analyze its risk factors.
Methods: Extensive survey was carried out to understand the characteristics of posttransplantation diabetes mellitus in patients who received kidney grafting from February 1984 to December 2006.
Results: Three hundred forty-four post-transplantation diabetes mellitus patients from 1872 ones after kidney grafting were found from February 1984 to December 2006. The prevalence of new onset posttransplant diabetes mellitus and impaired fasting glucose in kidney allograft recipients were 18.4% and 12.7% respectively, being significantly higher than that in general population and other inpatients. The options of immunosuppressants were significantly associated with the prevalence of post-transplantation diabetes mellitus. By multivariate logistic regression analysis, the baseline characteristics of the post transplantation diabetes mellitus patients were significantly associated with increased age (OR: 1.309, P = 0.049), elevated level of the triglyceride ( OR: 1.311, P = 0.005), treatment with tacrolimus (FK506) (OR: 1.522, P = 0.008), and large dose of intravenous pulsed prednisolone (OR: 1.239, P = 0.011), as compared with patients without post-transplantation diabetes mellitus. Besides, the number of patients with at least one acute rejection episode was significantly greater in the post-transplantation diabetic patients. Mycophenolate mofetil (OR: 0.716, P = 0.028) and diltiazem (OR: 0.737, P = 0.015) were associated with lower risk of post-transplantation diabetes mellitus.
Conclusions: High prevalence of abnormal glucose metabolism in renal allograft recipients during hospitalization was observed. Many risk factors contributed to the development of post transplantation diabetes mellitus.